Groggs Conditions of Use

(Note to the reader: these are the Groggs rules and conditions of use as they existed on Phoenix. Emphasised text denotes a part of the rules which no longer applies.)

The following conditions of use of GROGGS exist in order to ensure that GROGGS conforms to Computing Service regulations, and to prevent loss or damage to the material contributed to it and inconvenience to other users or the Editors. They must be obeyed at all times.

There is also a code of conduct which helps to make GROGGS interesting to read and contribute to. While breaking the code is obviously not as severe as breaking the rules, the Editors reserve the right to impose bans on people who break either. Anyone who feels strongly that they are being denied free speech is of course encouraged to contact the CS.

Conditions of use of GROGGS

  1. GROGGS is not registered under the Data Protection Act (1984). Users may not search for specific userids. This rule follows legal advice from User Services. Any such processing of the GROGGS files is a breach of the Data Protection Act and of Computer Syndicate Regulations.
  2. The Editors reserve the right to censor any item submitted to GROGGS which is considered unsuitable either by themselves or by CS. This especially applies to items felt to be obscene, abusive or intended to cause offence in some way, excessively personal/not of general interest to readers, or to contain information encouraging or aiding misuse of Computing Service facilities. The contributor(s) of censored items are usually informed, but the Editors reserve the right to delete items without notice.
  3. The Editors reserve the right to produce and distribute files and printouts containing contributions to Groggs either immediately or at any later date. Furthermore, they reserve the right not to withdraw text, even at the request of the contributor.
  4. No responsibility for the loss of any material submitted to GROGGS will be accepted under any circumstances. Users are asked to keep copies of items of which they would consider the loss important.
  5. No responsibility will be taken for any undesired effects arising as a result of use of the GROGGS software, whether due to bugs or otherwise, or as a consequence of errors in the documentation. The prefixes &GROG and &NEWGROG are used for all temporary files created/overwritten implicitly by the GROGGS commands, and this prefix is reserved. Any bugs discovered should be reported to the Editors, who will fix them if/when time permits. HELPG BUG describes some known bugs which are not considered worth devoting the effort to dealing with.
  6. No part of the GROGGS software (the load modules in GROGGS.LIBRARY) may be copied. The source code will not generally be made available to users. This restriction forbids the storing of the output obtained by executing the commands with %switch reflect set or obtaining the source code by reverse compiling the load modules.
  7. The programs in GROGGS.LIBRARY and the files GROGGS.CURRENT, GROGGS.INDEX, GROGGS.MESSAGE and GROGGS.OLD may not be accessed in any way other than using the commands provided in the library GROGGS.LIBRARY:WREN.

Code of Conduct

The following guidelines are useful in ensuring that GROGGS does not become boring, repetitive or over-personal.

  1. When participating in serious/lengthy discussions, be sure to read all that has been said on a topic already, and only contribute anything which is new/different, and not just saying the same as someone else in a different way.
  2. Keep serious replies to within a single screenful if possible. There is a limit on the "message space" for each item, and longer "rants" can be offputting. Use Zinque, possibly with a file in your own filespace for long debates (see HELPG ZINQUE). It is quite permissible to make replies longer than one page long if they are poetry or humour (from whatever source) or if they are of sufficient general interest - please use common sense - but if it's longer than 2 or 3 pages you should consider putting it in a file somewhere and just putting a pointer (i.e. the name of the file) in GROGGS. In general, however, the opening contribution to an item may be quite long in order to establish the basis for the discussion - but please still use common sense, and put in a pointer to a file if the item is not of sufficient general interest and is very long. People abusing this freedom can expect to be banned for a short time.
  3. Do not submit anything which is really personal conversation or argument, and of no interest to readers other than a small clique. In particular, GROGGS is NOT the place for multi-user notify-type conversations, and the software is particularly ill-suited to this use. Also, do not contribute 'junk'; for example text which does not make any sense or which no grogger would be interested in reading.